The Nutribullet effect sees berry fruit sales soar

Written by Simon Cocks | 25 August 2015

Our love affair with juicing has seen sales of British strawberries, raspberries and blueberries massively increase

Sales of British strawberries, raspberries and blueberries have increased dramatically this year, according to trade body British Summer Fruits. Demand for blueberries is up by almost a third this year, and raspberry sales are ahead by 20%. The growing popularity of Summer fruits is no doubt a result of the Brits' love affair with juicing and smoothie making - John Lewis says says it sells one NutriBullet every four minutes.

Blueberries are Ocado's best selling fruit (strawberries the online retailer's third most popular and incidentally smoothie staples bananas and avocados are also in the top five). While Lidl says sales of strawberries have gone up by 20% year on year in its stores.

As a result of the Nutribullet effect, farmers are increasing the amount of land they use for fruit and producing robust new berries that are better suited to surviving and providing greater yields: these new varieties provide as much as 50% larger yields compared with similar fruits a few years ago.

British Summer Fruits estimates that rising sales will result in British strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries topping £1 billion sales this year, a huge surge from £300m in 2004.

Robert Pascall of Clock House Farm, one of Britain's largest berry growers, says that British producers have enjoyed a lot of loyalty from shoppers who want to buy local. 'When English fruit is available, it’s taken first'. But he adds the year-round availability of these fruits - raspberries for example are imported from Portugal, Spain and Morocco -has helped keep the fruit in the minds of shoppers even when the British season has ended.

Have you been buying more berries this Summer? Are you blitzing them into smoothies and juices, or simply eating them fresh? Let us know on Twitter at @GHInstituteUK